Did God Create

ADEUUby Herbert W. Armstrong

This booklet is not to be sold. lt isa free educational service in thepublic interest, published by the

Worldwide Church of God.

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright @ 1978Worldwide Church of God

All Rights Reserved

The Bible pictures the whole worldunder the sway of an invisibledevil. Where did he come from?Did God create a devil to tempt usand to lead us astray? Here are

the answers from God's Word!

s rHERE a devil? Many people talk about thedevil and Satan. Others scoff and say it's justsuperstition and imagination.

But is there a deuil? According to most Christiansthe Bible is supposed to teach that the devil is "the godof this world."

Did God create a devil? What does the Bible actuallyteach?

To find out let's look back to the very beginning. Openyour Bible to Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God. . . ." Godwas before all. The next word in the King James version is

"created." "God created." He created the heaven and theearth.

But the very next verse says this: "The earth was withoutform, and void." The Hebrew words for "without form, andvoid" arc tohu and bohu. Translated into English they meanchaotic, in confusion, waste, and empty.

When God created the heaven and the earth, did Hecreate this earth originally in a state of confusion? Did Hecreate it all topsy-turvy and chaotic?

World NOT Created in Chaos

We read in I Corinthians 14:33 that "God js Not the author ofconfusion " God is the author of peace. God is the author oforder and of law.

Did God Create A Devil?

Why would He create the earth in disorder and then haveto straighten it out? That doesn't make sense! One scholarpoints out that the Hebrew word for "created," bara, used inGenesis 1:1, "implies that the creation was a perfect work."That very word "created" implies a perfect and a beautifulorder and system, not chaos or confusion!

The book of Job shows God talking with Job about thecreation. God is saying to Job, "Where wast thou when I laidthe foundations of the earth?" There is the implication herethat Job had directed the building of some very greatedifice-such as the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Job wasrighteous and somewhat proud of his accomplishments. Godwas whittling him down to humility by a comparison ofaccomplishments.

God continues, "Who hath laid the measures thereof, ifthou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened [margin,"sunk"]? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When themorning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shoutedfor joy?" (Job 38:4-7.)

It is significant that the great pyramid is a building wherethe corner stone is not laid in the foundation, but the finalstone to be laid-at the pinnacle. The "morning stars" arelight-(truth-) bringing angels and archangels, according toBiblical interpretation of symbols. As creations of God, theyalso are referred to as "all the sons of God." So this, too,implies a perfect and glorious creation of the earth.

Then how did it become chaotic?In Genesis 19:26, the same Hebrew word hayah is used

which is translated "was" in Genesis 1:2. (See also Genesis 2:7and 9:15.) And there it is translated into the English word"became." In the first three chapters of the Bible, and manyother places where you find the Hebrew word hayah, inalmost every case it denotes a condition that was differentfrom a former condition. In other words, the earth "BECAME"chaotic. It had not always been that way.

The Earth BECAME Chaotic

Plainly the word "was" (hayah) here has the meaning of"became." The Rotherham translation of Genesis 1:2, out of

Did God Create A Devil?

the original Hebrew language, is this: "Now the earth snnBECoME waste and empty." It hadn't always been that way.

In Jeremiah 4:23,Isaiah 34:11, and in other places in theBible, you find the same words, tohu and bohu, meaning"chaotic" and "in confusion." In every case that condition is oresult of sin.

No Chaos Originally

Notice Isaiah 45:18. "Thus saith the Eternal that created theheavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; hehath established it, he createdit not in vain." "In vain" is aninappropriate translation. In your Bible, if you have themarginal references, you will flnd in the margin a preferabletranslation, "waste."

The original Hebrew word there is rouu. This Hebrewword is the identical word used in Genesis L:2, meaning"confusion," or "emptiness," or ('y7agf,g"-a result of disorder,a result of violation of law. In Isaiah 45:18 we have the plainstatement that God created the earth Nor tohu, that is, nof inconfusion, not in disorder. But in Genesis 1:2, the earth was(because it had become) chaotic q,nd in confusion!

Then it became that way after it was created. Now, whatcould have caused that confusion-that disorder? What sincould have wrecked the earth and brought it into thecondition in which it was found in Genesis 1:2?

Life Before Adam?

Now, what was the sin then that caused this physicaldestruction to the earth? It was not a sin caused by humanity,because there had been no man on the earth until the sixthday of that re-creation or that remaking. So it was not a sin ofman. Adam was the first rnan We find in I Corinthians 15:45that Adam is called the first man on this earth. In Genesis,Eve is called the mother of all living human beings. There wasno other race prior to Adam and Eve.

So the sin which brought chaos was not caused by man.And yet life must have populated the earth because a sin hadoccurred on the earth that brought it into a condition of chaosand confusion by breaking the laws of God.

What kind of life could it have been? It wasn't human

Did God Create A Devil?

life. Then what kind of life had populated the earth prior toAdam, prior to the week called "creation week"?

Next, let's turn to II Peter 2:4: "For if God spared not theangels that sinned. . . ." Here is the sin of angels mentioned.

Sin of Angels!

Now read the next verse, "And spared not the old world,"between Adam and Noah, "but saved Noah the eighth person,a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon theworld of the ungodly." There it mentions the sins from Adamto Noah, and it mentions the physical destruction to theearth as a result of the flood, a chaotic, physical conditionbrought about on the earth by the sins of those men.

Was there a chaotic condition brought about on the earthas a result of the sins of angels? The sin of the angels ismentioned first, and it occurued first! There was a devilalready there in existence by the time Adam was created. Sothe sin of the angels happened before the creation of man.

Now read II Peter 2:6. "Turning the cities of Sodom andGomorrha into ashes [God] condemned them with anoverthrow, making them an ensample unto those that aftershould live ungodly."

Universal sin was in those two Canaanite cities. Physicaldestruction came to the entire part of the surface of the earthwhich those people occupied as a result of that sin. Thendidn't such a destruction come to the earth as a result of thesins of the angels which occurred before Adam?

Now quickly turn over to Jude. In the sixth verse, youread this: "And the angels which kept not their first estate,but left their own habitation [they had a place where theyIived, a habitation, an estate, and they left it], he hathreserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto thejudgment of the great day." Notice! It is the sinning angelswho are reserved in those chains under darkness, restrainedfrom light, restrained from truth until the judgment of thegreat day.

Angels Possess the Earth!

How plain! They had an estate which they didn't keep. InHebrews 2:5 we read this: "For unto the angels hath God

Did God Create A Devil?

not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak."In other words, the World Tomorrow, the Kingdom of God,will not be under subjection to angels. The present one isunder subjection of fallen angels. The demons, and thedevil who is their head, rule this present earth and sway itsinhabitants. The Bible everywhere indicates and affirmsthat very fact.

How did they obtain their dominion? How did theyacquire their power? How did they maintain their control?Where did the devil get the power to control and to lead andto rule this world?

The devil is the leader of fallen angels, as you will findin a number of places (John L2:31; Matt. 12:26; 25:41; Rev.L2:9).In II Corinthians 4:4 the devil is called "the god of thisworld." He is the king or the prince of the evil world that welive in today. Let's see something about the origin of thedevil.

Turn to Isaiah 14, beginning with verse 4, "Thou shalttake up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say,How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!"

Here is a king of Babylon.This account continues to tell how he had disrupted the

earth. He was an invader, a conqueror. He was a warmonger,trying to take away from others and trying to acquire all hecould. He had just the opposite philosophy from that of God.In other words, he had the philosophy of the devil.

He represented the deuiL The king of Babylon was thedevil's instrument and tool.

Rebellion of Lucifer

This "king of Babylon" is the future ruler over the prophesied"United States of Europs"-f,hs coming resurrected "HolyRoman Empire," described in prophecies of Revelation 17

and 18. It is a system described in Revelation 13 which wasgiven its power and seat by Satan.

Then in verse 12, the type-this human king of Baby-Ion-lifts to the arch-antitype, Satan. Satan is to be removedand bound after the Messiah's coming. Ezekiel's prophecy, tobe described later, reveals that he is the former archangelcherub, Lucifer.

Did God Create A Devi!?

So continue, verse 12.

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of themorning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didstweaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I willascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars ofGod: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in thesides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of theclouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14). The15th verse returns to the human king.

Notice, this former archangel had been placed as rulerover the angels that sinned. He had a throne. He said hewould exalt his throne above the stars (angels) of God. Italready was exalted above the angels on earth-the angelsthat sinned with him. Now he was going to exalt it over Goo'sANGELs in heaven. He was going to invade God's heaven,knock God off the throne of the universe, and rule the wholeuniverse!

We learn much more about this cherub who becameSatan in Ezekiel 28. Here, beginning verse 1, the humanprince of Tyre is referred to, wealthy (chapter 27), surroundedby perfect beauty, saying in his vain heart, "I am a God,"-"1sit in the seat of God" (verse 2)-compare with II Thessaloni-ans 2:3-4.

Compare also Ezekiel 27:7 with Revelation 18:16. Allthese refer to the same system. However, Ezekiel 26 refers tothe ancient Tyre, as a forerunner or type of the present andyet future system. Then, as in Isaiah 14, the human type liftsto the satanic antitype in Ezekiel28:12:

"Son of man, take up a lamentation [dirge] upon the kingof Tyrus [Tyre]. . . ." The whole prophecy of chapters 27 and28 refers, not to the ruler of the ancient city of Tyre (as doeschapter 26), but to an important personage, in Satan's hand,of our time-and immediate future-just before the comingof the Messiah to remove Satan and bring in world peace.

Therefore the prophecy points to the nNo of this greatpersonage ruling spiritually over nations-as well as toSatan's removal from swaying mankind on earth. Now,beginning with verse 12, and on to the middle of verse 17, itspeaks of Satan himself.

So, continue: ". . . And say unto him, Thus saith the Lord

Did God Create A Devil?

Eternal; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfectin beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; everyprecious stone was thy covering. . . the workmanship of thytabrets and of thy pipes [music] was prepared in thee in theday that thou wast created."

A Created Being

Notice, this is not speaking of a human, but a cREATEo being.God would never say of a human that he seals up the sumtotal of wisdom, perfection and beauty. Then who was thisgreat created being, originally?

"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I haveset thee so," answers God. In Exodus 25:L7-20, you will findthe description of the very throne of God in heaven, fromwhich He rules the entire vast limitless universe. On thisthrone are two cherubim-super archangels-whose wingsspread out and couer the throne. This personage, then, is theformer Lucifer, who was at the very throne of the universe,thoroughly experienced in the Government of God over theuniverse. Now he is pictured as being on earth, But he hadbeen, formerly, at the very throne of God, as the next wordsplainly say:

". . . Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thouhast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wastcreated, till iniquity [awlessness] wast found in thee."

Then God attributes to him violence, sin, corruption ofwisdom, perversion, saying he became proud-his heart liftedup because of his beauty. Then, in verse L7, the immortalspirit antitype descends again to the human type, who will bea chief instrument in Satan's hands in the tremendous worldevents just prior to, and leading to the coming of the Messiahto establish the GovnnNnapNt oF Goo over all earth'snations.

This human personage, claiming to be God, sitting in hissanctuary (verse 18) showing that he is God (II Thess. 2:3-4),is to be destroyed by rrRn, brought to ashes (verse 18).Compare with Revelation 19:20. In the latter, two humanpersonages, instruments of Satan, are pictured-one a civilruler over ten kings and their nations, the other called a great

Did God Create A Devil?

"False Prophet" (Rev. 19:20). The prophecy of Isaiah L4

pictures the king of Babylon as the civil ruler.

Lucifer Becomes the Devil

So now, let's recapitulate thus far. The earth was a perfectcreation. The angels shouted for joy. From creation, it waspopulated by angels.

There was a throne, oD which sat Lucifer, a superarchangel, a cherub. He had been thoroughly experienced inthe administration of the Government of God, having been atthe very throne of God in heaven. God had placed Lucifer onthe throne on earth to administer rup GovERNMENT or Gooover earth's angels.

There was happiness, peace, joy on earth. Of Lucifer, theMoffatt translation reads: "From the day you were created,you lived a perfect life, till you were discovered doing wrong"(Ezek. 28:15). Gon oro Nor cREATE A DEVIL, but a beautiful,perfect superangel. But God did give to His angels free moralagency-minds that were free to think and reason-the rightof free choice.

Lucifer had allowed his beauty and perfection to fill himwith vanity-with snlr-glory, snr,r-desire. He became enviousof God's power, resented authority over him. He plotted withhis angels to marshal them into an invading army, to invadethe heaven of God, to knock God off the throne of theUniverse.

Lucifer was going to sn God. It is his deceptive sway overthe "Prince of Tyre" that will yet cause this personage toclaim that Hn, a man, is God.

So Lucifer was no longer "LIGHT-Bringer" but now anADVERsARy-an aggressor, a competitor, an enemy. The nameSatan n'Leans "Adversary." His angels now became DEMoNs.

How the Earth Became Chaotic

A third of the angels united with Satan in the rebellion. Thatis what caused the chaos of this earth. The sin of angelsreached into the heavens and brought chaos on earth. Whatthe geologists and astronomers see is not an evolving universe,but the wreckage of a titanic battle waged by spiritsthroughout space-a battle fought before man's creation.

Did God Create A Devil?

The earth was created perfect. Then it sncA,r,Ip chaotic as

a result of rebellion. And in six days, God remade the earth,reshaped, refashioned it, and created human beings upon it(Psalm 104:30).

He gave Adam a chance to take the place of Satan thedevil, sit on earth's throne, and restore the Government ofGod on earth. Adam rejected the tremendous opportunity,yielded to Satan who to this day remains on earth's throne as

the god of this world. Christ, the second Adam, will soon cometo sit on that throne andrestore the Government of God (Acts3:19-21). Remember, Lucifer had been placed in rulership.

God placed the great cherub, Lucifer, to carry out Hisgovernment on the earth, but Lucifer refused to carry outGod's will, God's commands, God's government. He wanted tosubstitute his own. So he disqualified himself .

Adam had the chance to supplant him. In the contest tosee if Adam would conquer, if he would obey God, he failed.He obeyed the devil instead, and man became the property ofthe deuil, and the whole human race has been sold down theriver to the devil ever since.

Jesus Christ came 4,000 years later and He entered thegreat contest-the contest of the temptation on the Mount.Ile RprusED ,o obey the deuiL He quoted scripture correctly.He obeyed God.

Finally, He turned to the devil, and He gaue Satan acsmmand. He said, "Get away from me," and the devilobeyed!

From that time on, the successor of Satan has beenqualified to take over the rule of the earth. But Jesus went toheaven for 1900 years. He is soon coming again, and when Hedoes, the deuil will be DISpLACEI. Christ will rule the earth,God's Laws will be restored. Order and peace will come atlast!

So God did Nor create a devil. He created a cherub,Lucifer-perfect in his ways, but with the power of freechoice-and Lucifer transformed himself into a devil byrebellion against the Government of God!

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